Our History

Companies have re-engineered everything but their people and they wonder why things haven’t changed. We address the human side of change, of leadership and commitment, first. It makes all the difference.

Sue Steele

CEO,

JMJ

A Legacy for the Future

Sue Steele

CEO

There’s no mistaking JMJ’s mission and values. I couldn’t be prouder to share them around the world. The last 30+ years of our work has proven time and again when you protect your people’s futures, you protect your business’s future.

For me, it’s personal. Following an incident that happened on my watch years ago, I vowed never again to let anyone working on a project I was involved with come into harm’s way. JMJ helps me fulfil that promise every day.

Safety is, of course, JMJ’s starting point for business transformation. Ensuring others’ welfares is not just our past, it’s our future. We know a culture of safety is just the first step in building an organization that produces and sustains extraordinary breakthrough performances. That’s a step we’ve guided countless times.

We’ve shown some of the world’s biggest companies operating, in some of the world’s riskiest industries, how to make the impossible possible. I humbly invite you to see for yourself how rewarding it is to lead these astonishing business transformations.

Reflections from our Founders

Jay Greenspan

Founder

30 years ago, when Mike Goddu, Joseph Friedman and I launched JMJ in San Francisco, it was not even a remote vision of ours that one day we would have a fully operating business across the entire world - one making such a profound impact. There are many ways to describe the history of JMJ as a business; what we offer, the results we produce and our good name and brand in the world. We are the values we come from. We operate in integrity. We are all the systems, processes, structures and tools that allow us to help others thrive.

Mike Goddu

Founder, Managing Director – APAC

It is always fascinating to see who found their way to JMJ. It is not accidental or random. The men and women to whom JMJ calls are people who dare to see and meet the possibility of something bigger than themselves. They knew in their hearts that work could provide more than just a salary. They were drawn to JMJ out of a passionate vision - one in which their work lives enable them to be their highest self. In so doing, they open up possibilities for full self-expression and deep fulfillment.

Joseph Friedman

Founder

I’m proud to have co-founded JMJ. What inspired Jay, Mike and I then, and continues to inspire JMJ today, is the belief that we can be of great service and experience joy at work while making a profit. The thread that runs from our early days to now is that from the beginning we made bold promises to our clients and delivered on them. We staked our reputation and viability on the promise, that by working on intangible factors such as commitment, relationship and communication we could make dramatic, measurable differences, delivering tangible factors such as project execution, profitability and, most profoundly, safety performance.

A Story Celebrating 30 Years of Coming Home Safely

“We refuse to accept that hurting people is OK in our industry.”Drilling Manager, Maersk Oil Qatar

History Highlights from 1977 to Present

The highlights below are simply highlights. They do not name all the amazing people who have done so much to make JMJ who we are. Nor can we capture all the extraordinary events that form our legacy and inspire us onward today. Our guiding light was – and still is – our lasting commitment to making a difference.

With colleagues from around the world, Joseph Friedman, Mike Goddu and Jay Greenspan spearhead the commitment of more than 5 million people in the possibility of ending world hunger. As the Hunger Project’s longest standing corporate sponsor, JMJ, funds a Hunger Project epicenter in the West African nation of Ghana.

Joseph, Mike and Jay launch JMJ in Sausalito, California with $10,000 in seed money provided by Jay’s mother, Bernice. JMJ joins a nationwide franchise network of consulting firms (Transformational Technologies) licensed to leverage ideas in personal Transformation to create breakthrough performance in business. JMJ was named “Rookie of the Year” among companies in their franchise system.

JMJ receives multiple requests for large construction projects in Houston. Serving as the project consultant for Air Products’ expansion of its chemical plant in Pasadena, Texas, the project was breakthrough: Stellar safety performance. Completion three months ahead of schedule. Costs at 20 percent below estimates. The Air Products HPOV plant was recognized as “Project of the Year” by the Construction Industry Institute and received the National Award for Construction Safety Excellence from The National Business Roundtable.

JMJ moves its corporate headquarters from California to Texas to better serve the growing needs of its largest clients in the oil and gas industry. Clients such as Chevron, Mobil, Union Carbide, Brown & Root, and BP, achieve major breakthroughs on their capital projects.

JMJ’s award-winning High Performance Projects™ practice thrives with clients achieving industry recognition for project performance. JMJ project work supports the rebuilding of Kuwait, the clean-up of the Hanford nuclear waste site in Washington, the Channel Tunnel, and, the Sydney Harbor Tunnel in advance of the 2000 Olympics. The Harbor Tunnel project condensed a five year project plan into three years and realized a cost savings of $125 million.

Inspired by our work with Monsanto Agricultural to create a culture of safety across plants in the south-central US, the landmark Incident and Injury-Free™ (IIF™) practice takes off. JMJ leads the way in creating safety performance for major energy, mining and construction companies operating around the world. JMJ’s safety projects transform the mines of South Africa to the oil fields of western Australia, Qatar, Kazakhstan, the North Sea and Sakhalin Island.

Called on to deliver Incident and Injury-Free™ (IIF™) results for one of the largest construction projects in Europe with a budget of more than £4 billion. JMJ helped achieve two periods of one million person-hours without a reportable accident. Terminal 5 was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on March 14, 2008.

JMJ’s work on Shell Pearl GTL integrated a team, including contractors and subcontractors, to accomplish world-class safety performance. The work site had a population of a small city comprised of workers from over 50 countries, who spoke dozens of different languages and represented multiple cultures and religions, calling for a non-traditional approach to workplace safety. Results included 77M worker-hours without a Lost Time Incident, across a workforce of 52,000 people. This was a record for Shell in its 100+ years.

After years of double digit growth, led by Steve Portner, CEO, along with shareholders Steve Knisely, Mark Britton, Rick Bair and Jay Greenspan, London-based private investor group, 3i, acquires the majority shares of JMJ. With the backing of 3i, the company moves onward in the commitment to transform safety leadership cultures around the world.

Today is an era of purposeful growth. From the Middle East to Asia, from Europe to the Americas, JMJ continues to deliver extraordinary results. New leaders join to guide further expansion, including Sue Steele, CEO, Andy Fisher, CFO, Anne Prichard, CHRO and Laurie Brunner, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer. With growth from new clients, a loyal base of long-term customers and a team of expert consultants, the future is bright.

Over the last 30+ years, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world live safer, more productive, and above all, more rewarding lives. Building a leadership culture of care and respect is only the beginning of our process which can be summed up in one word: Transformation. It’s been our mission for three decades.

In partnership with our clients around the globe, we make the impossible possible, and the possible real by creating an environment where people are motivated, inspired, and rewarded – every day. When organizations believe in their people fully, they achieve extraordinary performance and breakthrough results. We help them get there.

JMJ is focused on transformational leadership. We help companies build a belief system from the ground up; it’s based on respect for every single employee. And it is indeed transformational. Being inclusive and committed to the welfare of all is what makes good organizations amazing organizations. We’ll show you how to make this visionary, invaluable shift.

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